What brainwave frequencies work best?

[no_strings]

Hi folks, long time lurker making his first post...

There's a lot of confusing stuff out there, and I can't tell whether there is a consensus on brainwave entrainment. For effective and sustained implantation of post-hypnotic suggestions, is there a "preferred" brainwave pattern for inducing trance?

The trouble I have is that I'm the type who's very "self-observant". I'll regularly be going under and I'll think to myself 'oh look, I'm going into trance, this is quite a deep one this is, not as deep as last time but not too bad...' etc. I'll have periods where I go very deep (no recollection afterwards), but I tend to go in and out, and when I come back up a bit, there's my mind waiting to say 'oh, that was good, but now I'm back up again', which rather breaks things up.

As a result, although I can achieve quite a deep trance (I think), I've yet to have much obvious success with any triggers or training. So I'm looking for ways of improving matters.

All help and advice gratefully received.

NS

[Blink]

There's a lot of confusing stuff out there, and I can't tell whether there is a consensus on brainwave entrainment. For effective and sustained implantation of post-hypnotic suggestions, is there a "preferred" brainwave pattern for inducing trance?

If you're just looking for brainwave frequencies, Theta is associated with the trance state. A good explanation of binaural beats, the frequency ranges you're looking for and the difficulties you can expect in getting to them can be found here. I've never been a big fan of binaural beats, 'cause they always sound like an Emergency Broadcasting System test to me. Some people swear by 'em, though. As an aside, the frequency ranges were named with Greek letters in the order they were discovered, so they don't seem to run in order. The ones we're interested in, in decending order, are Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta where Beta is fully conscious and Delta is deep sleep. A good mnemonic is BATHED. If you want to know about the rest of the rest of the brainwave frequencies, this is a good place to start.

The trouble I have is that I'm the type who's very "self-observant". I'll regularly be going under and I'll think to myself 'oh look, I'm going into trance, this is quite a deep one this is, not as deep as last time but not too bad...' etc. I'll have periods where I go very deep (no recollection afterwards), but I tend to go in and out, and when I come back up a bit, there's my mind waiting to say 'oh, that was good, but now I'm back up again', which rather breaks things up.

You're describing the critical faculty in all its glory. The critical faculty is the part of your mind that sits between conscious and subconscious and functions as a censor. It's normally a great thing to have in its "bullshit detector" function, but it's annoying when it interferes with something you want to do, such as trance. There are various means of bypassing the critical faculty. You just need to find the one that works for you. Coming back out of trance can be a good thing. You might not have noticed that you tend to go deeper after you come up. That's something you can pay attention to now.

Hope this was helpful.

-- Blink

[LadyJane]

I saw the posts discussing brain waves. I recently was researching meditation music and came accross a set of cd's at the library.

I recommend a google search for Brainwave Suite. It is composed by Dr. Jeffrey D. Thompson. It is a set of four cds involving different brain waves.

Check your local library.

Lady Jane